[Saturday Night of 20XX]
[Sometime in March]
[Katie McCabe, 1st Person]
[Musing in her head about the situation]
So, ‘Superpowers exist,’ you say. Followed by, ‘Magic exists,’ you say. And, ‘Why are you saying this,’ you say? Magic is hidden by The Deception, what TV Tropes would refer to it as a Masquerade. Or on this alt-Earth I’ve been reborn is named such by Trope Treasury instead of TV Tropes. Of how history was rewritten as much as it could be to hide magic. Therefore, you wonder, ‘Shouldn’t the Deception cover superpowers?’ if such a magical construct exists?
You postulate, ‘Katie Ivy McCabe, there should be no Powered. They shouldn’t be running around. There should not be A Powered Tale,’ yet ... if the superpowers people are using aren’t magic? If they’re some form of sufficiently advanced bit of physics? An energy field of a type being manipulated by biology in some way? In such a situation The Deception doesn’t cover them.
The Deception is not maintained by people waving wands to mutter nonsense incantations like how some fiction depicts. Regardless of how there are some people with magic rings running around thinking they’re maintaining The Deception with their Deceivers.
The actual proper Deception is maintained by The Gods, of all those Pantheons who were once worshipped by the majority of people. Gods still worshipped here and there in places within this alternate timeline where they held on.
While Belief, Worship, Sacrifice, and such empowers those Old Gods as an act of magic for them ... TV Tropes (Well, Trope Treasury on this world of Earth Sierra-Hotel-1), The Gods laugh at you at your trope of Gods Need Prayer Badly.
They have power beyond such magicks, even if the magic and power of The Gods allows them to become more powerful and mightier. They need not of us. And? I just like to note: The term god in power can refer from an ordinary Natural charismatic cult leader all the way to an omnipotent and omniscient creator God who can do anything. And everything in between those two states.
So, there are more terms than a god for Higher and Lower Beings, but it is a basic shorthand for various celestial, heavenly, and infernal beings who are worshipped as gods. So, I will use it, but there are other terms and ranks for various beings and entities of great supernatural power
And, anyway, to get back on topic. The fact is? Nor are we just one world in one solar system, we’re one world in a whole load of galaxies like shining stars. And we’re in a very large multiverse, of the Higher Beings striding parallel to parallel to quote Davros from NuWho.
Therefore, if the superpowers people are developing don’t count as magic? Then The Deception doesn’t cover them. If you are to pretend magic is superpowers? Act like your spell casting or magical powers are just another Powered?
To be a part of the whole Powered Culture if you aren’t Powered? ... Or Psi-Culture as The Internet has also named them, because having to use two syllables to call them by Powered is a bit too much for people. They just call one of them a Psi, and multiple Powered as Psis, for me to use Powered most of the time.
Because, as the quote usually goes, ‘the Internet is why we can’t have some nice things,’ If the internet does grant other nice things at the same time. If you’re not getting into the Internet looking at the Trope Treasury Page of Differently Powered Individual and having a whole load of arguments on the words to use.
To rip off Old Ben Kenobi from the classics? I feel a great Disturbance in The Internet, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in anger and suddenly started arguing. I feel something stupid has happened.
However! If superpowers exist, if there’s people running around with Space Magic as the Magical Community has stolen the phrase from The Mass Effect Fandom to explain The Powered? To explain what are the Intrinsic Fields of Powered, which aren’t actual magic, what could be confused for magic by various people? What the Supernatural Community is calling Space Magic as not only a Joke but as a Meme in our parts of the Internet.
It means all kind of Magical Beings and Supernatural's can pretend to be Powered.
So, to The Natural World and The Scientific Community, there is suddenly a whole wide range of the peoples of Powered and Supernaturals running around. While at the same time? The Magical Community, as part of what is the rest of The Supernatural Community, can determine when there is actually a Powered and not a Supernatural Cosplaying as one.
Now, you sing, from the song of, ‘Impress your Creators,’ by Tub Ring, it, ‘was an average Tuesday, there was a shooting star, then everything went fucking nuts,’ and, yeah, it went to top the charts when, ‘everything went fucking nuts,’ to quote the song at the beginning of this year. The existence of superpowers has the dictionary definition of, ‘fucking nuts,’ in particular places on the internet.
When Powered started cropping up on fuzzy OwnVid Videos on the internet, followed by Heulwen as an Alien-Supernatural saved a plane about to crash at Cardiff Airport. With her doing the whole classical bit of Powered Heroing of, ‘saving a plane full of passengers via using their superpowers,’ on live TV. Heulwen was interviewed by someone on said live TV after the near plane crash, followed by the interview going viral on the internet in various places.
Like the anonymous English Language Imageboard of Quad-Child, the microblogging site of Chirp, the social media site of LifeTome, or the internet video place of OwnVid. I believe most people can make connections to what those sites are on alternate Earth’s like the one I was born in during my first life somewhere in The Alpha Sequence of Universes. What is now in this second life of my first reincarnation are the big ones of each of those.
It went everywhere and anywhere on the internet. It propagated and spread like wildfire. And immediately afterwards make The Deceivers of a certain group, to formally explain their reaction, ‘Lost their fucking shit,’ as various Internet Sages would put it.
With them attempting to do their crude and primitive attempts to hack the internet to take down what was bloody everywhere. To fail massively at attempting to take it down, for people to make Memes in The Supernatural and Magical Parts of the Internet at how made of fail The Deceivers of The Sorcerous are.
You go to ask me. To say, ‘Katie McCabe. Why is this important you little practising witch and dabbler of a few bits of magic who writes Numerology Programs for The Government to keep an eye on the stock market.’ How I am a Numerology Programmer who plays the stock market like a pro.
You question me, ‘What are you doing when you can just enjoy your life doing such and leave the superheroes to Heulwen flying through the sky.’ The Suit of a Superpowered Hero of an ET Supernatural who came out when, as mentioned, said average Tuesday went batshit crazy? Why not let the literal Alien goddess of Heulwen be her shining golden sunlight self? Let her be the one to worry about the evil magical crystals of glowing cursed Black Crystals of what is Photonate.
You go to prompt me, to ask, as the reincarnation of a Claire Cloak from an alternate and far saner world. (If ignoring the fact, it became a Cyberpunk Dystopia with a collapsing environment, the sanity was fairly relative when considering its nature as a Cyberpunk Dystopia. For the universe located somewhere in what is The Alpha Sequence of The Multiverse. A world I’d swear was a Shadow World of a darker world to a far brighter Tech Eutopia.)
Why can’t I just enjoy being a Magical and a Supernatural in an insane reality and not going out heroing? What's stopping you just being a relatively ordinary Witch? (And, No, Rowling. No. Witch and Wizard aren’t gendered, damn it! They are a concept both genders can be and are each their own type of magical!)
Well ... The Abilities of The Powered (Yes, I could have used the word powers instead of abilities at the same time of calling Powered as Psis, but shush!) they’re not magical. Magic can replicate and copy what are Natural Occurrences and technologies.
People have enchanted little Compact Mirrors to be a top of the line Smartphone. What can be done non magically can be done far easier with magic, or even easier if it was possible with magic but now is possible without magic.
Meaning ... The Superpowers of these people are replicable by magic.
And, if you’ll allow me to rip off Morpheus in The Matrix, to modify one of his quotes, ‘I’ve done it, Trinity.’ I’ve replicated The Abilities of a Powered. Well, I’ve replicated what are the required Secondary Powers required for the whole scene to exist.
Regardless of the fact I still have to work out how to replicate the Primary Powers without some numerological maths which scares me with the initial power I’ve been able to check. Due to some fiddly bits. I’ve done it by magic, there is the certainty of Magic being inviolable and can’t be turned off like some Powered have the Ability to affect the Intrinsic Fields of other Powered.
While I enjoy The Order of The Stick as a work of fiction as a bit of DnD/D&D, there is no turning off the magic and removing it. It’s more powerful than every other Fundamental Force combined. Magic is The Fundamental Force and you can’t just switch it off with a flick of a switch.
You’re wondering why I have to go and be a hero, not just for the reason of, ‘because,’ as my defence. Not just to sing a lyric from a good Miracle of Sound song, ‘When the clouds are blotting out the sky, I swing upon on the silver lining,’ as a reason? Well hush, dear. I’ll get to it.
However! Moving past said bit at the moment. You’re wondering, what are the Powered Abilities every actual Powered has as part of their power set? There’s an energy field around them, a bullet deflecting energy field, the weakest of those energy fields will have a shotgun blast splatter off it and do nothing.
What is simply called a Bullet Shield, of a form of Energy Shield made to generally block bullets. When considering a Bullet Shield? You must exclude the fact you can run in and punch them in the face or stab them with a knife.
Yes, I will note, The US of A is currently in a rather crazy state because of this. Without getting into the fact of hero politics on the matter of villains of No-Killing and Killing. Politics inspired by the two dominant cultural comic notions in the two main bits of western Super Power Fiction.
In The UK what is the situation too is not going as it used to from before Powered appeared. Not consider The Scarlet Pimpernel Laws hidden away by some seers as part of The Magical Government working with The Natural Government long ago.
The situation in various places around the whole world isn’t exactly what it used to be. With lots of freak outs, various Natural Politicians doing and saying stuff to win the popularity contests of politics around the planet.
The fact is, Powered are Immune to Bullets. And going up in power scales, it scales. I’ve done numerological calculations about the most powerful, they’d tank a full yield Tsar Bomba to keep going past the detonation of said nuke.
Even if it’s due to their Bullet Shield being built differently rather than the basic one of the average Powered. From how the Bullet Shield of an Intrinsic Field would act as a protective bubble at the detonation of a nuke.
Plus? There are certain parts of the internet who are screaming about how inserting, ‘more gun,’ into anything now fails to work due to Bullet Shields as a work of fiction. At least if facing Powered on Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 or such, and not in some other world or timeline. Or the crossovers between fiction and real life, whether or not Bullet Shields work or not.
The Bullet Shields were and are obviously someone’s cheat for the powers they’re handing out for them to not get killed by guns. There is some kind of action going on by some kind of being or beings with Bullet Shields who require The Powered to not die to bullets. There is some form of plan happening or a plan trying to be made, and to not have the people turned into Powered don’t end up riddled with bullets.
Then there is the minor enhanced healing factor, of what will eventually heal you if it’s still attached to you, for the basic damage of bruises and pushing yourself are healed. You are not going to end up a pile of wounds in three months, Batman. At least for the people who are Powered or have magically replicated their powers as one of the possible permanent empowerment rituals.
They will still die if killed, or if someone cuts off an arm and you get medical attention, you’ll be lacking an arm. Like usual for most people of Naturals, most Powered, and a lot of Supernaturals. The fact of the matter is, running around fighting the good fight will not stop a Powered from the accumulated little bits of damage of running around. And as they get more powerful, the enhanced healing factor goes up in power too.
Combined with what is the said minor enhanced healing factor, there is a secondary power of said secondary power. Namely a Powered needs less sleep, a good deal of less sleep. So they can run around for most of the night, and after said night time power usage can catch a little sleep to be up and at ‘em. To be raring to go for the rest of the day and next night.
With said secondary power of a secondary power, or a tertiary power as we’ll call it? It scales too with the Abilities of The Powered. There is also another tertiary power of a Powered, namely the minor enhanced healing factor will attune their physical to a reasonable level of fitness.
Of what would be a generally fit person, with a six-pack and such, though if someone gets dysmorphia from this from their preferred body type? The power won’t fix the mental problem of the dysmorphia of a person.
Yes, I’ll note, there are people whose powers are mostly just the secondary powers with a dash of a very basic Imbuement Ability like Enchantment for part of their Power Gift. Letting them make stab proof armour. Or for such a gift to maybe possibly be a bit stronger, maybe just having some precog reflexes, or such and such of another minor power.
I can replicate such a feat with magic, and yes, I’ve got a few other bits and bobs in my capabilities. To join my magical skills and learning. If you’ll allow me to repeat myself, ‘I’ve done it, Trinity.’ if I’m allowed to use the quote again. Indeed, I have documented it and published it to the Journal called simply Magic. I’ve written up how to do it, what people have to pay me to be able to do it.
I have prepped for a week after publishing it, to have it be a new form of magic. For others to be using it as a permanent ritual empowerment ability. With how The Space Magic does its little bit of weirdness, I’ve replicated it.
And now?
In Holdport, the city I call home and grew up in? It’s opening night for Red Hen to go out, as I’m going to call myself. I would ideally prefer myself to be more ready before going out, to have more tools and skills to arm myself with. I had so many plans I had wanted to do prior to taking to the stage as a fact
Now there is the fact I have one person, or possibly two people to rescue. One person, or two different people who are both important. There's my cousin, who has gone missing. And how there is a missing hero, of a local Powered who has been running around.
Who they might be the same person, the Deception is being annoying. But someone in the higher realms, some of the Covenant of Spirits? They’re bending the rules a bit on The Deception for covering Tara’s and Jaggedy Annie’s identity. At least the rules of what The New Deception is going to be, compared to what the Old Deception covered.
To quote the matrix properly this time, to quote Cypher, “Somebody up there still likes me,” and I'm certainly going to rescue this possibly one person, or possibly two different people. If it is two people instead of one? I’m starting with my cousin first, to go as I mean to go on. Having done some scrying and divinations? With a little help from a friend or two of mine? I think I’ve found her.
There are just some vampires to possibly worry about in this situation ...
And, for a quick retort?
(Okay, I’m lying about it being quick. You can probably tell by now how much monologuing is a problem for me, feel free to put the blame on my shoulders. It’s my fault, and I’m not going to blame my upbringing for this. My Dad is an example I’d like to follow, and The Bitch Queen of Angmar who is Mother Dearest is a lesson in what not to do. I will own one of my many flaws as being the mess of flaws to make me up.)
I do know this sounds crazy, of how unreal this sounds. How parts of you are wondering if a certain Claire Cloak hasn’t reincarnated as Katie McCabe and is in a coma hallucinating the whole thing. The part where I quoted the Tub Ring song kinda implies how crazy I think this is.
To steal a philosophy from my first life, one I think I may have read it in an Isekai story or somewhere. Something something common shit to pass the day of a life slowly sliding into oblivion and not getting anywhere. Probably like the author of said utter crap.
The Author of it was a J.A.[Something], I think, some unmemorable and pretentious hack who is best forgotten. At least the one from my First Life, the version of them in this second life might have written R3 (Rare Robot Repairer) or they might not have.
I can’t honestly remember, because the (possible) version of them on a sane(r) earth was so forgettable. Other than how absolutely much of their fucking drivel was a piss poor example of language and an illogical farce of badly constructed buggered up English. I can recall how reading their works was just to fill a bit of time when one of the good bits of fiction I read wasn’t updating.
To quote possibly the only thing I’ll remember from the tepid, room temperature, piece of crap what passed the time? To cite the quote I remember, ‘Until the point this isn’t proven to be real, this is real. And I shall assume this is real until proven otherwise,’ as a bit of philosophy I remember. Or what was compressed into one more succinct sentence if I remember correctly, ‘This is real until proven otherwise.’
If such philosophy counts for being in a computer simulation, it also does count for a possible coma dream. It is a philosophy when being in a comic book like reality is happening and there are possible solutions of it not being real.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
If it’s about the nature of reality, every moment up to this point has been proven to be real to me. The insane parts of its different metaphysics and physics have been repeatedly validated, and no thread has appeared to pull to prove it unreal. To disprove this being reality.
So far, Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 has not been shown to be a computer reality made to entertain some bored AI Godlings in the Machine. Or so on, or so forth. Till it is, I shall and will accept this as my current life. It is my current world, how this and everyone else in it is real.
Instead of me being real in a VR Sim and being in a world populated by Large Language Model Chat Bots. Thus, I hold to those two sentences of philosophy and will keep to them till future evidence finds it my way.
In conclusion, to quote the Twelfth Doctor, “I'm definitely having his chair,” about this ... Okay, scratch my attempt to be witty. In conclusion, I had some vampires to hunt, and either one person who was my cousin to save. Or two people to rescue, my cousin first and a hero of my local city who would be second.
I’m not accepting losing someone else, I refuse. And If I have to choose between saving the current hero of this city and my cousin, if they are two different people and not the same person, I’ll save my cousin.
It did mean there were some vampires to slay either way, and I’ve lost too many people to vampires already to allow this. There is a time and place for this, and it was there and then. So, out of my little monologue of what you’re probably bored of.
To quote The Eleventh instead of the Twelfth, “To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show.”
[Saturday Night of 20XX]
[Sometime in March]
[Holdport]
[3rd Person]
The vampire nest was in the docks of the City of Holdport, on what on a different Earth to the alt-Earth of Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 would be the Town of Minehead. An altered history with how magic had altered the geology in the past, Holdport Bay extended out in a curve like a larger version of Weston-super-Mare’s bay. Or on Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 was called Weston-juxta-Mare.
Within the middle of Holdport Bay the island of Sheep Holm was right in the centre of the bay, with The Pier leading out to it being in the middle of where the docks were. Where the docks filled the bay’s coast all along Holdport bay in a Horseshoe, Sheep Holm was without docks and its sandy shores allowed people to go to the beach.
Or holiday on the island in the little settlement of Shepherd Village, on the island which was still secretly bigger on the inside. What most of The Naturals didn’t know about ... the whole spatial expansion of what was the island.
The vampire nest was located in the middle of the docks, near where the pier went out to the island. The old warehouse of what was now a vampire nest, had been bought by a shell company by one of the older vamps. Of what was an offsite location for their main base.
As to quote the Evil Overlord List on what the vampires were doing: I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum — a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well. Of what the vampires were doing to the Hero they had captured. And had considered it as a fact.
The five year old Uncommon Hollywood Vampire advisor at The Blood Reavers main HQ, forever stuck as a vampire as one of the rare young vampires who don’t grow up? They had agreed with it, like the fact The Blood Reavers did try to follow the Evil Overlord List whenever possible.
The group of vampires, as part of the larger group of various vampires? They were the absolutely weak mozzies of The Common Hollies, of The Common Hollywood Vampire, of what was the cultural idea to come out of the notion of Orlok and such.
Of how the oldest of The Common Hollies were not and are not older than World War II, if you consider the fact vampires who have gone to alternate worlds where time moves faster? Has allowed Hollies of hundreds of years old to exist even with no Common Holly being older than the said Second World War.
Outside the warehouse the vampires ran their operations out of, there was a vampire on patrol to guard the outside of the warehouse. He was clad in simple blue jeans, blue shirt, and such, the revolver on his belt was ready.
Due to the fact The Natural part of The UK Government had caved when The Supernatural pretended to be Powered to allow people guns back. Regardless of the fact for actual Powered, guns were literally useless and were causing parts of The World to freak the fuck out about people being immune to bullets.
For all the Supernaturals who acted like magic wasn’t magic publicly as part of the new era? Of how magic was still made out to be nonsense on social media by The Pantheons of Old doing their work as the actual Deceivers? This was a new era, one where The Gods had said they were going to bring down The Deception due to what was going on. What was not right there and then, when the Heavens and Lower Realms were both still somewhat maintaining the traditional Deception.
The time had not come yet. But when it finally did? When the Deception would be instead to hide secret identities and not the Supernatural? People would still want the ability to kneecap a vampire and proceed to leg it when said crippled vampire couldn’t follow them. Being mostly unkillable by bullets for most vampires, didn’t make bullets useless against vampires.
Far from it, Buffster.
The Common Western Hollywood Vampire to use its full name, or just a Holly for short ... if not for the fact said shortening meant you could confuse a Common Western Hollywood Werewolf for one. (Thus there is the insult for said vampires of calling them Peasant Vampires to fix the confsion.) The mentioned vampire however diligently kept up his patrol as he was ordered by his superiors, as a classic example of a loyal minion without much personal initiative.
The woman in red on the roof of the warehouse was not armed with a gun, at least she wasn’t actively carrying one on her person in the visible. She rested there, the combination of the permanent ritual empowerments of Cat’s Grace and Squirrel Agility with The Knight Practitioner Martial Art style let her do so.
She was unnoticed not because most people don’t look up. No, it was down to her pair of Rings of Gyges, one on each index finger, the rings giving her an Awareness Shroud instead of just Invisibility. She just didn’t need to go invisible, if the ability was a nice one to have in reserve.
Off in the distance there was the sound of the hum of a flying self-driving Quadcopter Car with a high energy Sodium-Ion Battery powering it. The sounds of self-driving ground cars, powered by more Sodium-Ion Batteries, in the distance as an extra later of background noise.
With those sounds in the background on both the top of the warehouse where the woman was, and down where the vampire was? She dropped down with the silence and grace of a cat behind the vampire, a wooden stake of Rowan Wood for other types of vampires. Instead of a Common Holly you can kill with an ordinary wooden toothpick or wooden cocktail stick.
The stake went through the back of the vampire, as part of the weaknesses of a Common Holly? The rib cage was supernaturally weak to wood. So it didn’t need her super strength to punch through the ribcage like it would with a more dangerous type of vampire. The vampire went and collapsed into bones, dust, and clothes. A sad little pile and remains of the vamp had said revolver he had carried on it.
The enchanted revolver created metal out of The Elemental Realm of Metal as raw lead and Transformed it with a bit of Elemental Energy Magic to be an ordinary bullet. The flick of her basic magicks, of those things made the pistol go into her Pocket Space. Into what was the Extra Dimensional Space anchored to herself via a magic ritual, a magic ritual she had used to make what was her Pocket Space.
But the magical six cylinder revolver had its enchantments on each cylinder to create a bullet every second. Of what were Creation Magicks to create the materials it used. So, the Webley Mk. VI top-break revolver would have another bullet every sixth of a second, it could theoretically fire three hundred and sixty bullets a minute.
The vampiric guard had thus now been removed. As had the other guard on the other side of the warehouse, of what had been another very basic Holly of a Vampire. A skip had been moved against the door on the other side of the warehouse with the help of the Awareness Shroud to block off the other exit. There was now the door for Red Hen to stride through on this side of the warehouse.
With a flick of a thought, the Awareness Shroud on her was tuned down. Namely, to help disguise her identity when acting as a hero. It added to what The Deception would do as well. She had her red helmet over what was a white face mask to be extra sure, with the rest of her garb helped by the magicks of The Deception.
And to help maintain her secret identity there was the rest of her uniform, of her Suit as a Hero to be one of The Suits. Of what were her red Mushroom Leather Trousers, red Mushroom Leather Belt with a Silvery Metal Belt Buckle (of a particular magical metal), red shirt, red Mushroom Leather Jacket, and red Mushroom Leather Boots.
The four foot ten (147.32 cm) tall woman therefore looked to the door she was facing, then pocketed her stake back into her Pocket Space. She strode over to the locked door. Of what was a locked thick metal door, she rolled her shoulders, grinned under the enchanted red faceplate of her helmet. And she sent it flying off its hinges with one simple kick to have the door go flying into the warehouse.
Vampires looked up from being on guard by the door of the large open warehouse. Eyes went red, while canines lengthened into fangs when they Vamped Out. Webley Revolvers were raised, with the superhuman speed possessed by most vampires including Hollies. The revolvers barked out in a hail of bullets as they fired with their inhuman abilities.
Bullets came at Katie McCabe, for them to only slow as they came at her, rippling into the field generated by her. Of what was her magically generated Intrinsic Field of a bullet shield. The bullets stopped in mid air and pinged down to the floor in little tings of metal. There was a pause as the Vampires stopped shooting at her, one where she didn’t start playing Gregorian Chanting as a holy weapon as she didn’t need it for this.
There was a vampire in the middle of the warehouse. From when he was beside a pale, bound, and gagged woman who he’d just been drinking from the vein of her already healed neck. He swore, “Ah, Fuck! A Powered!” and he roared out, “Get her!” as he ran to the other door of the warehouse, one on the other side was blocked by the skip.
Vampires ran into bursts of speed, as the small woman who had come to rescue the other woman moved with sublime skill. Cat’s Grace, with Squirrel Ability, Sophilius Cobra Precog Reflexes, and the Magical Martial Art to draw on her Vi (Elan Vital or Vitality) allowed her to move to fight them. The Knight Practitioner of a Western Magical Martial Artist dodged vampiric super strength punches and kicks, ones enhanced by knuckle dusters and steel toecaps.
She returned those attacks with her own punches and kicks, while she reached out with what were basic simple magicks. Of what was Pyrophagy, to rip the heat out of air and vampires in the warehouse, the dropping of the temperature on the other door and the closed loading docks. At the same time, she used Forsphagy to drain the luck out of the enemy, keeping the good luck for herself and channel the bad luck into the rest of them.
The same Pyrophagy allowed her to take the simple candle lighting spell anyone and everyone could learn with a bit of basic time and effort. With the unneeded gesture a part of what was the unnecessary incantation of Ignis.
Technically speaking Pyrophagy could have the heat manipulation be split into its own separate discipline of Thermophagy, and the same for Kapnosphagy of Smoke Magic. However Pyrophagy, Thermophagy, and Kapnosphagy are their own bit of fire magic grouped together to be taught as a combined power. A type of magic collectively called Pyrophagy, and for practitioners of it to be Pyrophages.
The magic she was using of Pyrophagy fed into the general purpose fire spell used as the candle spell and beams of fire lanced out into vampires. Mozzies, as the Common Hollies or peasant vampires were also known as generally like other vamps, burst into human torches of screaming fire. To leave piles of smoking bones and clothes in a pile with heated up other items.
With the Pyrophagy of her abilities feeding off the heat and fire left by the slain vampires, she took said heat back and stopped the warehouse bursting into flame. She wasn’t bloody Coventry, to reference a certain local accidental pyromaniac.
While behind her?
The door of the warehouse and the upper windows went dark as she leached the light away. What was Luxphagy, the magic of eating and drawing upon light? It fed into her magicks and power, strengthening the Vi of her Vitality, of what she turned Luxphagy into Vitaphagy of Elan Vital.
As she did the basic bit of magical channelling of one of the classical bits of modern witchcraft, she also converted light into luck as a mystical energy. Of what the Luxphagy was being used for Forsphagy.
The Witch who was also a Chancer of a Chance Adept, a practitioner of Luck Magic of not just Forsphagy. She kept the well of luck she maintained ready to draw on it instinctively if needed. The vampires of the lower warehouse were joined by ones on the first floor of the upper gantry of the vampires. Who dropped down from above to fight or otherwise just ran down the stairs.
For them to join the scything death of what were vampires dying again. To banish the Blood Spirits of said vampires using the screaming human souls of the former occupants as Eternal, Immortal, and Indestructible power sources.
To what she thought was sending the souls of those vampire blood spirits to one of the darker afterlives while giving the human souls a chance to escape their fate worse than death. Of what added to the blood magic of the general magicks in the warehouse, magic fueled by blood and death of the living as most general vampirism did. While slaying such monsters will do the same.
Before you get into the fact of most Blood Spirits of vampires being engineered to be evil? The magic to support most vampires is of The Dark Arts. Of blood and death, not of pencil shading and charcoal sketching. The average vampire feeding on people is a shoot on sight offence and absolutely not to be remotely tolerated.
However, the other vampires who had filled the room were now dead again. The vampire who had tried to run, the still simple Common Holly of this group looked at her. And he had stopped trying to run.
And was back at the woman he'd captured, with her dark hair, blue eyes, red lips, paler than usual skin, and such? She looked very much like a version of Snow White. As she did normally when she had not been fed upon by vampires and was now paler.
He had her by the neck and shouted to the other woman, “Don't try anything! Or I'll kill her!”
There was a pause, Red Hen looked at the vampire. And then ...
[Pronunciation]
Sophilius - So’Phil’E’Us
[Lore]
[Three of the Seven Empowerment Rituals]
[Three of The Classical European Six Rituals]
[A little on The History of Empowerment Rituals]
The Classical Six Western European Empowerments are the standard six used by most ritualists in Western Europe. As the standard and general traditions of said ritualists who aren’t Hedge-Witches, or of a different tradition from somewhere else in the world.
Of the three mentioned Empowerment Rituals, there are:
Cat’s Grace
Squirrel Agility
Sophilius Cobra Precog Reflexes
The three together are called The Budget Spiderman package by some, a nickname meme’d about on bits of the Supernatural Parts of the Internet. Said permanent, irrevocable, magical empowerments? They allow someone to move and react like said comic character with how they dance around. Especially with the Precog Reflexes of the third empowerment. Of what is a basic package to allow the average Witch or such to move and be able to run far easier.
Of Magical Enhancement, or Magical Transhumanism, but not Magical Post-Humanism. A part of most magical traditions of the magicks of Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 for most supernaturals, even if these are just three of the six standard Western European Rituals.
Of what is the current maximum Seven Empowerment Rituals in modern magic under numerology. And not the magicks of pre-nineteenth century magic, of what in the eighteenth century and before had just been three possible Empowerment Rituals. Or the magicks prior to the fourteenth century there hadn’t been Permanent Empowerment Rituals in human magic.
Of how these three rituals had not been the Classical Three Western Empowerment Rituals. Those had been different during the time between the start of The Fourteenth Century and the end of The Eighteenth Century. At least in The Western World.
Before what was The Fourteenth Century, of what hadn’t been considered a permanent Empowerment Ritual, were the permanent rituals to become some kind of Werewolf. Or some other kind of supernatural other than just lycanthropy, or more than just therianthropy. Of a different type of supernatural.
[Lore]
[On Forsphagy as a Forsphage]
[The tactical use of Luck Magic]
[The Devil’s Luck] [Tyche’s Grace]
[Interstellar Wizard] [Earthbound]
The First Principle of Luck Magic, and probably the most important principle of Luck Magic is it runs out. A principle The Natural World knows with the notion embodied in the phrase of, ‘your luck is going to run out one of these days,’ or such and such.
If you were to make and build a magical generator to generate a constant supply of magic, then convert it to Luck Magic? The First Principle of Luck Magic is a logical assumption for sane luck adepts of who call themselves Chancers.
And yes, the informal and disapproving meaning of, ‘someone who takes chances and often does improper things to get an advantage over other people,’ of what Chancer means in Natural British English is the meaning too in Supernatural British English. As the usage of Luck Magic by Chancers isn’t exactly usually sugar, spice, everything nice, buttercups, and daisies.
On what is the tactical use of Luck Magic, taking away the enemies good luck, leaving their bad luck is understandable. Under the First Principle you don’t go into blatant bad luck of them rolling a Minus Natural Twenty and you rolling a Natural Twenty for it. Such blatant usage of Luck Magic is not only obvious, but it burns Luck like there is no tomorrow.
A Chancer who does so will quickly run out of Luck. Both good luck for themselves and bad luck for their enemy. It is also why for the average combatant you don’t see them just using Luck Magic alone. You may run into a civilian Chancer who is mostly specced to win at the horses, you won’t find a Chancer running around with just luck for everything else.
Unless it’s The Curse of The Devil’s Luck of The Coven Family by The Raven. Of it draining luck from every non Coven around them to make horrible luck for them, and for good luck of something of a monkey’s paw for the Coven it’s working for. Or if it’s the opposite of The Devil’s Luck like Tyche’s Grace and literal divine granted good luck for the person blessed by what is The Grace of Tyche.
To take said reference to tabletop gaming of DnD/D&D again? The Devil’s Luck gives everyone else around said Chancer a minimum of minus twenty on all dice rolls around them. While giving the Chancer of a Coven minimum of a plus twenty on all dice rolls, the DM of a GC (Dungeon Master of a Game Coordinator) is told to deliberately screw you over.
On anything and everything to happen eventually, as part of why people should not want to be around a Coven. And it’s without getting into the fact of how if a Coven embraces The Devil’s Luck, they fall to The Dark Side to serve The Demon god who made the curse?
The reason why in Interstellar Wizard games with The Devil’s Luck, even The Earthbound Versions made to properly simulate the magical situation on Earth Sierra-Hotel-1? The game doesn’t allow for someone to play someone with The Devil’s Luck and a GMPC as TV Tropes would put is strongly discouraged. (Or how Trope Treasury on what is Earth Sierra-Hotel-1 would call it a GCPC.) How The Devil’s Luck is intended for NPCs and not for ruining a game.
The fact is, for someone who has embraced the curse, the Servant of The Raven who is a part of The Infernal Hellfire Corporation of The Hearth, The Raven, and The Wasp? They’re a vile evil, who brings woe to all around. Interstellar Wizard has whole campaign modules for having an evil Coven of a Chancer of The Devil’s Luck as a foe.
Such an Evil Coven, in both Interstellar Wizard and out of it, will spec for more than The Devil’s Luck for the majority of them. Using the twisted and foul luck to help them become better and more skilled at other magicks, even before getting into the fact The Coven Family are a Family of Mages. If they are Practising Mages and not avoiding magic and The Curse of The Devil’s Luck what comes with practising magic.
While Tyche’s Grace would give someone a minimum plus twenty four on all rolls for you and your party, while giving a minimum of minus twenty on all dice rolls for your enemy. So it’s allowed in Interstellar Wizard games and The Earthbound Versions, if played wrongly can cause the disintegration of a gaming group.
These two versions of a Chancer, along with the simulations of them, are basically the only Chancers who could dedicate themselves solely to using luck. And for the Coven Family who is cursed with The Devil’s Luck are Mages who when using magic have The Devil’s Luck come to the fore? Then a Coven isn’t going to just rely on The Devil’s Luck when they’ve gotten into this to be able to cast magic.
Someone who has Tyche’s Grace? Of a blessed, a champion, descendent, or demigod of Tyche. Having said Grace they could fight with luck alone. They would and will generally branch out to other magicks. Like the traditional Chancer Combatant.
How Katie McCabe of Red Hen doesn’t rely on luck to fight, just generally affecting her enemies and building her good luck for when she would need it. In the terms of the type of Witch she has specced to, in tabletop terms of DnD/D&D she would be reducing the enemies chance by a level of one.
So an enemy Natural Twenty Four of Interstellar Wizard would go to twenty three for example, a general and controlled version of her luck. At the same time keeping her own good luck ready to be used, to be her own dice modifier, she saves it for the moment she needs it. Thus it builds up to something more as she fights like a Witch without being just someone being a Chancer and using only luck.
In Interstellar Wizard, with its standard four dice of a six sided die? With how Interstellar Wizard is designed to be able to have the whole game just run on one six sided dice, just rolled a lot? Going from 24 to 4 without a negative dice modifier? She’d be ready to add 24 to her dice pool on a roll if needed.
And her use of the enemies bad luck wouldn’t be a dice modifier of removing one dice so they only have three dice to go from 3 to 18. For a Chancer it would be expressed as four dice with a reduction of one from the roll to be between 3 to 23. And it didn’t remotely approach the dice modifier of only two dice, one dice, or zero dice. Of how Chancer Magic of Luck Magic could be used to remove someone’s Dice Pool down to Zero Dice or worse.
About what is Interstellar Wizard, and yes in what is its Earthbound version too, would be able to go from four dice and three dice. To two dice between 2 to 12, or one die between 1 to 6, or the mentioned zero dice of 0. And a Chancer going all out could make it so the enemy would make a negative dice roll to have a die roll to subtract from what they’re doing.
To go between -1 to -6 with one Dice, -2 to -12 with two negative dice, -3 to -18 with three negative dice, or -4 to -24 with four negative dice. Those kinds of translations of real life into The Game (the one you just lost), with possibly more than four positive dice and four negative dice with higher levels of various people.
A Chancer though, even for someone who has Tyche’s Grace, will generally branch out. The various disciplines of witchcraft being able to be learnt by them, the skills and abilities anyone and everyone can learn as a human if they put the effort in. Rather than being born with some form of magic like a Mage, or Sorcerous, or a Wizard, to just list three examples of specific power someone can have.
Frankly if you were to build and construct enough good luck charms to be covered in them as a Chancer? If you just rely on The Arts of Chance and Fortune, of the disciplines of Luck Magic? If you are just a Chancer?
You will fail and fall when your luck runs out. As luck will do eventually, like luck normally does. Having other techniques, skills, and abilities is the path to staying alive. Or staying whole and not suffering what is a Fate Worse Than Death.
So, the classical Forsphage of a practitioner of The Devouring Arts will draw and practise other magicks of those arts. And it is why, as a Forsphage, how Katie McCabe does not fight solely as a Chancer. But the magicks she learnt to survive being around a Coven and The Devil’s Luck are one arrow in her quiver.
